Teachers taught STEAM lessons in Lithuania
Secondary School no. 10 Suceava is the initiator and coordinator of an Erasmus+ project entitled "STEAM by STEAM", i.e. "Strategies for teaching and educating students to stimulate learning using the STEAM concept (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics)". It is a strategic partnership project, coordinated at the European level by Prof. Rodica Zimbru, director of this institution, financed by the European Commission and has a total value of over 180,000 euros, a grant distributed among the partner schools: Secondary School no. 10 Suceava, Agrupamento de Escolas Boa Água, from Sesimbra, Portugal, Gymnasio Iolkou from Volos, Greece, SU Konstantin Konstantinov from Sliven, Bulgaria, Juodsilio Silo gimnazija from Vilnius, Lithuania and Ostra Gymnasium, which is the second institution in Romania.
The project aims to increase students' motivation to learn and improve their school results in partner institutions, using STEAM as a way to develop essential skills, including: pro-active attitude, problem-solving skills, creativity, multitasking, initiative, ability to anticipate, leadership, teamwork, empathy, by sharing experiences and best practices.
Its objectives are: developing teachers' skills to plan and carry out lessons in a STEAM perspective, through a training course on this topic; application of the STEAM concept by teachers, in lessons designed by themselves and partners; creating a framework for developing essential skills for students, using STEAM as a modality, through lessons taught in schools by teachers from partner schools; creating a collection of professional development materials for teachers (lesson plans, games), using STEAM, uploaded to an online platform. The project is focused on two very important and topical concepts. One of them targets students' essential life skills, including problem solving, creativity, multitasking, initiative, anticipation, teamwork, empathy, learning to learn. The other is to create the way to improve or develop these skills, and this is the STEAM concept, which involves students and teachers in a collaborative process of teaching and learning activities. Activities are both local and transnational. Between them, in February 2020, a training course took place in the coordinating school, for 4 teachers from each partner school, and two student exchanges (6 students and 2 teachers), organized in Greece, in October 2021 and Lithuania, between January 10-14, 2022, with the other two to be determined later. The project will end at the end of August this year, having been extended by 12 months due to the pandemic situation that affected the conduct of transnational activities.
The activities carried out last week was therefore hosted by the partner institution in Lithuania. Six students and two teachers from the partner school in Greece, six students and three teachers from Portugal participated. The partner school in Bulgaria did not send representatives, due to restrictions in the country. The coordinating school was represented by Mrs. Zimbru Rodica, the director of the school and the coordinator of the project at the European level, and by Mrs. Daniela Vîrvara, the companions of the group of students. The school from Ostra was represented by Mrs. Masichevici Elena. The teachers held lessons in the host school, with the aim, on the one hand, of developing the teachers' skills of teaching in a European school, of communicating in English, of using the STEAM concept for integrated teaching, under the conditions each of which teaches subjects that are not related to science, technology, engineering, art or mathematics, on the contrary, the subjects taught are Romanian language and literature, social education and school counseling, subjects for preschool education. Under these conditions, the objectives of the project have been achieved, they aim at integrated teaching for the motivation of students to learn.
The experience that completes the training of both students and teachers consists on the one hand in the collaboration with the teachers and students of the other schools involved, the intercultural activities they participated in, the visits and lessons held both in the school and at the "Body World" exhibition” from Kaunas, at the Trakai Museum, the “Test-tube” lesson. The participants were impressed by the way education is organized in the Lithuanian school, by the impressive equipment of the science laboratory, by the professionalism of the colleagues from the partner schools, who conducted lessons of a high didactic quality for the students involved in the project.
The project is a bold initiative of Secondary School no. 10 Suceava and represents an opportunity to offer teaching staff and students examples of active, collaborative learning, following established European models, which will increase the value of the education offered by the Suceava institution. It also represented a starting point in the development of European partnerships on the subject of STEAM education, considering the fact that the institution is a partner school in another project entitled "PLASTEAM - STEAM for Plastic-Free Primary Schools", coordinated by a Dutch institution, which runs from 2020 for two years.
